Get to Know Duke's HC Jon Scheyer: The Competitor

The Duke Blue Devils are off to a hot start. They have looked great to start the season, and a lot has to do with the coaching staff that is led by head coach Jon Scheyer. Scheyer is one of the best head coaches in college basketball right now.

He is doing a great job with all the young talent that is mixed with the returners this season. The chemistry is there for this team, and that is something you do not see with a team like this that has freshmen and upperclassmen.

With the goals that this Duke team has of winning a National Championship, the Blue Devils need to make sure they have a lot of chemistry on and off the court. Scheyer is making sure his players have that. He did it in the offseason and continued throughout the season. He knows what it takes to win it all, and having chemistry is a huge factor. That is something you want your head coach to take a lot of pride in.

Nov 14, 2025; Durham, North Carolina, USA; Duke Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer (right) talks to guard Cayden Boozer (2) during the first half against the Indiana State Sycamores at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-Imagn Images | Rob Kinnan-Imagn Images

What is special about Scheyer is his competitiveness, and that is what makes his team better from the coaching staff and players.

"Scott Lidskin remembers playing a simple game of P-I-G with a young Scheyer in his backyard, except it was anything but simple. An hour-and-a-half passed and the two were still going, draining shot after shot," said Anna Sndyer of The Fayetteville Observer."

Nov 14, 2025; Durham, North Carolina, USA; Duke Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer directs his team during the second half against the Indiana State Sycamores at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-Imagn Images | Rob Kinnan-Imagn Images

“I'm like Jon, do we just want to stop?” said Lidskin, who coached Scheyer after first meeting him as a 5-foot 7-year-old.
Nope. The game continued, until Scheyer won.

“It’s just how he is,” Lidskin said. “He’s been competitive about everything in his life, and that’s why he’s so successful.”

Nov 18, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Duke Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer reacts during the second half against the Kansas Jayhawks at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Jon Scheyer the Competitor

At age 7 or 8, Scheyer was drawing up plays in his family’s suburban Chicago kitchen, jotting his ideas down in a notebook to later show Lidskin. Some eventually made it into the team’s playbook.

Years later, Scheyer borrowed one of those old plays for his first game as Duke head coach, one that ended in a Kyle Filipowski dunk.
“After the game, the first thing he said to me was, ‘How'd you like the first play?’” Lidskin said. “It was hysterical.”

When Lidskin visited in 2010 while Scheyer was recovering from eye surgery following an injury playing in the NBA's summer league, he played a game of Monopoly with Scheyer and his family.

Nov 21, 2025; Durham, North Carolina, USA; Duke Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer directs his team during the first half against the Niagara Purple Eagles at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-Imagn Images | Rob Kinnan-Imagn Images

The outcome was not in Scheyer’s favor.
“All right, buddy,” Lidskin told Scheyer. “I gotta get back home to the kids. I'll see you later.”

“Nope,” Scheyer replied. And they continued to play until he won.

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